In the last moment of the final episode of Dallas last season it was revealed that Rebecca (Julie Gonzalo), Christopher Ewing’s (Jesse Metcalfe) pregnant wife, is really the daughter of Cliff Barnes (Ken Kercheval), who has been JR Ewing’s (Larry Hagman) archenemy for decades.
In this interview, Julie Gonzalo reveals what to expect from her character this season, her scenes with both Jesse Metcalfe and Joss Henderson, who plays JR’s son, John Ross, and the death of Dallas legend, Larry Hagman.
Can you tease us a little bit about what to expect this season for your character?
You can expect the truth from her this time around. It’s revealed that her name is Pamela Rebecca Barnes. She is Cliff Barnes’ daughter. So right out of the gate on season two she’s coming clean to everyone.
This is who she’s going to be. So you finally get to know this character for who she truly is and not the mystery that it was last season. I think that the beauty for the audience in seeing the honesty in the character is that there are many different levels to her.
Your character went through a lot of changes last season. Can you speak to the changes she went through and how they affected her?
Rebecca last season was playing parts. She’s a con artist. I think that she was just trying to make her father proud.
She is now her true self. Her name is Pamela Barnes. She walks into a room and is now who she needs to be. There’s a lot of honesty behind the role this year.
There’s going to be a lot of revelations this season that are going to explain why things happened the way they did, and why she did the things she did last season.
Do you foresee Pamela reuniting with Christopher this year?
I don’t know. Anything can happen. We find her revealing her true identity but she’s also pregnant with Chris’ baby, and they are stuck in a custody battle. [But with] Dallas, anything can happen on the show.
She pretended to be Rebecca in the first season. Are you able to relate to any of her personas?
In the first season she really was in love with Christopher. She really did fall for him. [With] her true character being revealed now, you can sense that there’s a childlike behavior in her. As an actor, I can relate to that.
I don’t have anything in common with Pamela this year, to be honest with you. I don’t find her to be a villain in any sense of the [word]. I think she’s trying to make her father happy. [She's] a lot like the character of John Ross.
You butt head with Christopher this season, and you also have a connection with John Ross. What are Jesse and Josh like to work with?
As actors, I love them both. Jesse and Josh are really great talents and they’re just fun to be around on the set. We all genuinely enjoy each other’s company.
Everyone was saddened by Larry Hagman’s death. What has it been like moving forward with the show without him being there?
It’s still sad. We still talk about him on a daily basis. The first few months of his passing it was very somber on the set. But I think in a strange way it really united us and it made us all close. And by us I mean the crew, cast and everybody involved in the production.
I was blessed to be in his presence and to have spoken to him and to have had so many encounters with him. I will cherish those moments.
He would have wanted us to have a smile on our faces and to continue on and make the show [as good as] he made the show.
